The world is in the depths of a learning crisis, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to estimates, nearly two-thirds of 10-year-olds across low-, middle-, and high-income countries are unable to read and understand a simple story, a measure known as learning poverty. These children's – and their families' and communities' – futures hang in the balance as education systems fail to ensure they learn the basic skills they need for lifelong learning.
Children and young people have a key role to play in calling for action to address this crisis and prevent it from becoming a generational catastrophe. To capture their experiences, opinions, and ideas for solutions to the learning crisis, UNICEF launched a global U-Report on learning ahead of the Transforming Education Summit. This poll complemented a continental poll for Africa, together reaching over 440,000 young people across 171 countries.
Here's what we learned.
U-Reporters overwhelmingly think governments should provide more support for foundational learning.
Across the globe, 87 per cent of U-Reporters believe that governments should provide more support, so all children learn basic reading and maths in primary school. In East Asia and the Pacific, nearly all U-Reporters – 97 per cent– believe governments should do more.
In fact, seven out of 10 U-Reporters agree there is a global learning crisis.
Yet, U-Reporters underestimate the scale of this crisis, measured through learning poverty – the percentage of 10-year-olds unable to read and understand a simple story.
In some regions, a surprising number of U-Reporters didn’t feel their primary school prepared them well enough for secondary school.
In Latin American and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa, around one-third of U-Reporters didn’t feel prepared by their primary school for secondary school.
In South Asia, less than 60 per cent felt prepared by their primary school for secondary school.
The poll also showed that U-Reporters’ learning was impacted by the pandemic.
Three in four, or 76 per cent of, U-Reporters felt they learned less during the pandemic. In East Asia and the Pacific, 83 per cent of U-Reporters felt they learned less.
Young people also told us how governments can address the learning crisis.
What's next?
These results will help to shape the Youth Declaration of the Transforming Education Summit, taking place in New York on 16, 17, and 19 September 2022. The Youth Declaration will be presented to the UN Secretary General on the Mobilization Day on 16 September 2022. Many UNICEF Youth Advocates will attend this Mobilization Day, lending their voices and solutions to global efforts to transform education.
Beyond the Transforming Education Summit, these results will be used to inform and help to drive advocacy on the learning crisis. This year, UNICEF is calling for governments to endorse the joint agency Commitment to Action on Foundational Learning and show their support for three core actions:
a. Reduce by half the global share of children unable to read and understand a simple text by age 10, by 2030;
b. Implement the RAPID framework to: Enroll all children and keep them in school; help students catch up on lost learning and teach at their current learning levels, with a focus on building strong foundations for all children; support teachers, giving them the tools they need; and protect the health, nutrition and psychosocial well-being of students and their teachers; and
c. Close the education resource gap to invest in foundational learning.
Learn more about UNICEF's global advocacy on the learning crisis.
Young people, your voice matters! Join UNICEF’s U-Report platform by sending the word JOIN to U-Report Global Facebook, WhatsApp or Viber channels.
Here’s how to join:
• On WhatsApp, click here and send “JOIN.”
• On Facebook Messenger, send JOIN using Facebook Messenger at http://m.me/UReportGlobal.
• On Viber, follow the ‘U-Report’ Public Account (Go to Discover). Send the message JOIN.
